Woodrow Wilson

            
             President Woodrow Wilson regarded himself as the personal representative of the people. "No one but the President," he said, "seems to be expected . to look out for the general interests of the country"(Internet .
             1). He developed a program of progressive reform and asserted international leadership in building a new world order. In 1917 he proclaimed American's entrance into World War I a crusade to make the world "safe for democracy." Wilson had seen the difficulties of war. He was born in .
             Virginia in 1856. The son of a Presbyterian minister who during the Civil War was a pastor in Augusta, Georgia, and during Reconstruction a professor in the charred city of Columbia, South Carolina. After graduation from Princeton (then the College of New Jersey) and the University of Virginia Law School, Wilson earned his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University and entered upon an academic career. In 1885 he married Ellen Louise Axson. Wilson advanced rapidly as a conservative young professor of political science and became president of .
             Princeton in 1902. His growing national reputation led some conservative .
             Democrats to consider him Presidential material. First they persuaded him to run for Governor of New Jersey in 1910. In that campaign he asserted his independence of the conservatives and of the machine that had nominated him, endorsing a progressive platform, which he pursued as governor. He was nominated for President at the 1912 Democratic Convention and campaigned on a program called the New Freedom, which stressed individualism and states' rights. In the three-way election he received only 42 percent of the popular vote but an overwhelming electoral vote. Wilson dealt with Congress very effectively in his presidency. On April 2,1917, he asked Congress for a declaration of war on .
             Germany. Massive American effort slowly tipped the balance in favor of the .
             Allies. Wilson went before Congress in January 1918, to pronounce American war aims through a a series of ideas he had known as the Fourteen Points, this would establish a general association of nations indubitably guaranteeing political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.